experiments in raw vegan baking

I recently visited one of Copenhagen’s raw restaurants, Raw42 on Pilestræde, and was really taken by their raw desserts. They have these amazing mint layered brownies that are absolutely insane. Why eat raw desserts? In some ways they’re not a category of desserts to eat if you’re worried about eating light. They’re pretty heavy, as they substitute a lot of gluten and dairy items for rich fats and ample fruit sugars. Yet all things considered, healthy fats (nuts, nut flours, coconut oil) and fruit sugars (dates, berries) seem like a fine  way to construct a dessert. I’d rather eat desserts like these over the weird pseudo-food combinations found in the US (fat free Reddi-Whip, anyone?) as they’re more natural.

I experimented recently with two raw desserts. One is borrowed from This Rawsome Vegan Life’s book Rawsome Vegan Baking: An Un-Cookbook. The other is just something I created in honor of the Minnesota dessert bars of my college past, specifically the raspberry crumble bars we had in my college dining hall.

raw strawberry almond bars (raw, vegan, gluten-free, processed sugar-free)

crust: 3/4 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes, 1 & 1/2 cups almond flour, 1/8 cup tahini, 1/2 cup pitted soft dates, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

(combine with a food processor until you get a crumbly ball of dough. press into baking tray (8×8 max)

topping: 1 cup strawberries, 3/4 cup soft pitted dates, 1/3 cup water

(combine with a food processor and spread over the crust. freeze. top with sliced figs!)

tahini cups with coffee cream (raw, vegan, gluten-free, processed sugar-free) 

from rawsome vegan baking: an un-cookbook

ingredients:

shell: 1/3 cup tahini, 1/2 cup coconut oil

filling: 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled & 1 cup raw pitted dates (the super soft kind)

make:

stir tahini and melted coconut oil together. pour half into the bottom of muffin tins, or tiny cup tins – whatever you have lying around that will give you the vague ‘classic peanut butter cup’ shape. place in refrigerator for 10 minutes, or until hardened.

use a blender, food processor, or hand blender to combine the coffee and dates into a uniform paste with no chunks. remove tins from fridge, spoon a dollop of filling onto each cup bottom. spread out but do not go all the way to the edge, otherwise your cups will end up more like little sandwiches as mine did.

use the remaining shell mixture to cover each cup. return to the refrigerator for 15 minutes. enjoy but remember: they will melt quickly if exposed to heat, so store in the freezer and enjoy pretty immediately after removing.

pineapple coconut heat wave

last summer in DC i found myself building up this awesome heat tolerance. i still attribute it to the fact that i was doing heated power yoga sessions up to six times a week, and after finding the zen to complete yoga poses with hand weights while covered – dripped, fully soaked, coated, wet hair – in your own sweat (and sometime’s getting a splash of someone else’s!) for 60 minutes, living in humid 95-degree DC weather became more tolerable.

one danish winter under my belt and i’m back to square one. i’m there with the best of the danes right now, and we’re all complaining – dying – with this heat and humidity. don’t get me wrong, it has been pretty damn humid, but still, i was shocked to convert the temperatures today and realize that it’s been MAYBE 80 once – the rest has been high to mid 70’s. it pales in comparison to DC.

however, let it be said that danes prefer to be a bit more natural about this whole summer thing. most of the year it’s wet, colder, and quite dark, so of course the buildings are designed to let in a lot of sun and air. and we’re all set up for heating quite fine. but air conditioning does not exist here. ‘climate controlled’ spaces aren’t really a thing. there’s no waiting anxiously in the car for the first blast of cold, cold air. i asked my roommate where i could buy a fan for the apartment and she said, ‘well – i guess we don’t really do fans here. i don’t know!’ so i just experience the heat in all its glory – on my bike, in my apartment, at night, etc. that’s probably why it feels rougher. but i’ll live. more re-calibration will occur.

in the meantime, this is what i love to drink right now. it’s tart and sweet and refreshing. it’s more like a thick juice in consistency than a smoothie, really.

pineapple coconut drank

1.5 cups pineapple, chopped

1 cup coconut water, the pure kind, no sugar added

1/2 cup cold water

8 sprigs of mint

1 large banana

juice of one whole lemon

blend in your blender! garnish with a sprig of mint and add some ice cubes! drink! stay cool!

 

vegetarian and raw eats in stockholm

8t8 swedenborgsgatan 1

this cozy health food grocery store slash cafe boasts an impressive amount of specialty goods in such a small space. organic fruits & vegetables, condiments, chocolate, spices, teas, grains, alternative proteins – the list goes on and on. they offer a large collection of raw snacks, including chocolate, snack bars, and crackers. home-made treats change daily – the first day i walked in there were slices of raw carrot cake and raw energy balls, while the second time i visited they had made tropical mango chia seed pudding. for lunch they offer a rotation of noodle & salad bowls five ways, for around 100 sek – i tried the rice noodle salad with curried tofu cubes. it was topped with seaweed, sprouts, and came with a wonderful dressing. the best part was that they accommodated my love of spice and brought out a basket with oils, red pepper flakes, and other asian condiments. do not miss out on the freezer full of lily & hanna’s rawfood ice cream. you will be tempted to try them all. my advice: give in.

hermans vegetariska restaurang fjällgatan 23b

a vegetarian stockholm classic. they offer discounts for students so you’ll see a lot of young people eating at this all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet. sit outside and you’re treated to one of the best views of stockholm, overlooking the harbor area. (should normal seating prove not relaxing enough, they have hammocks, too.) i was impressed by their selection of well-seasoned dishes that span a variety of cuisines – mediterranean, indian, italian, etc. bland buffet food this is not. coffee & tea are included in the buffet price. check out their dessert area – it’s worth paying extra to try some of their home-made sweets. the raw cake was sold out when i visited, but they have a variety of vegetarian and raw desserts including cakes, cheesecake, muffins, energy balls, cookies, and bars. i’d recommend visiting the fotografiska museum afterwards: it’s open late and is located just down the stairs from hermans. lunch is around 110 sek, dinner is around 175 sek.

drop coffee wollmar yxkullsgatan 10

delicious small batch roasted coffee (micro-roast?) near mariatorget. you can get a tasting flight and sample several of their bean varieties. there are a few choice seats outside for people watching and maximizing summer sun, if you can manage to snag one amongst all of the strollers. inside is light, airy, and open – the perfect place to do some reading and watch the talented staff – it is an art form here. light sandwiches and food available as well.

ecobaren @ centralbadet drottninggatan 88

if you’re willing to splurge a little bit, you’ll find ecobaren tucked into a leafy green courtyard alongside centralbadet, one of stockholm’s oldest bathing houses. take a seat outside or in, and you’ll probably be surrounded by relaxed spa-goers in white robes sucking down smoothies. they offer organic drinks and homemade juices as well as a variety of salads, classic scandinavian plates, raw entrees, and warm dishes for those that want more substance. the raw pad thai is good, and make sure to try the raw energy plate for 170 sek – a beautiful, colorful plate with lots of different vegetables, topped with a delicious tomato walnut pesto and homemade raw crackers. very filling!

coconut curry hokkaido pumpkin soup

Here are some things I love about fall in Copenhagen:

Lake-side beers at Norrebro Bryghus. The best post-Monday work treat.

Brunches with friends. Fresh squeezed OJ. Danish pancakes. Eggs. Hangovers. Chats. Danish minimalism. Light.

Candles. Candles everywhere. I cannot exist in a space without candles these days. Also probably because the sun now sets around 3:45.

PUMPKIN SOUP. I had been wondering what to do with the hokkaido pumpkins at the store. They are like little orange gourds, but I’d never seen or used them before. Lo and behold, they are the creamiest, most awesome fall vegetable ever. I thought butternut squash was a winner but these are something else. This soup is just perfect – it’s hearty, it’s not watery, it’s creamy and slightly sweet from the coconut but also spicy and the three flavors (pumpkin, curry, coconut) are killer. I topped mine with the requisite Sriracha and more curry, it’d also be good with a swirl of cream or some pumpkin seeds on top.

graeskarsuppe / hokkaido pumpkin soup

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 knob of ginger, around 1×1′ chunk (but if you’re a ginger lover, you can double this), diced

1 medium sized onion, diced

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper

1/3 cup coconut milk, any kind (light, full-fat, your choice)

1 bouillon cube

3 cups water

3 fingerling potatoes, cubed

1 medium hokkaido pumpkin, cut into 1′ sized chunks, seeds removed

Combined garlic, ginger, onion, olive oil, curry powder, salt and pepper in a soup pot over medium heat and cook until the onions have softened. Add coconut milk and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring consistently. Add the bouillon cube, water, potatoes, and pumpkin. Cover and let simmer on low-medium heat for around 25 minutes, or until both the pumpkins and potatoes are completely soft when pierced with a fork. Use an immersion blender to blend all of the soup.

 

Peach ginger blueberry crumble for June

June is flying by faster than ever and I’m barely holding on – in a good way! I both amaze at when time flies and fear it. It’s been a great summer, but I also have such a good year ahead of me. So many adventures and currently, so little time to prepare for them! am heading to Minneapolis next week, and then am trying to cram as much work/shopping/packing as I can before another trip to New York and then … I get on a plane to meet my host grandparents in Denmark. Anticipation is coursing through my veins!

The moments I wish could last forever, though, are many. Like discovering my dad has been cultivating a bush of raspberries behind our basketball hoop. I’ve snuck out there several times after work, foraging for berries. At least, foraging is what I tell people. In reality it’s me standing waist-high in flowers getting my work pants wet with dew as I rather unceremoniously stuff raspberries in my mouth with one hand while swiping away prickly branches with the other. Love it, guys. Love this nature. I mean check these out, these glowing orbs of ripeness and the sticky, alien-like quality of the plant itself.

My sister is now working at a farmer’s market, much to everyone’s delight – half because we get a discount and it’s really cool to hear her talk about the produce and farm, half because she’s a self-described introvert so her first foray into the wonderful world of a customer service job is here. (Although she’s lucky because barely anyone is unhappy at a produce stand, unlike my first customer service job: Gap during the holidays.) Today we bought peaches and blueberries and ginger and lemons and set about making a crumble – aka the fruit dessert for people who are scared to/are too lazy to tackle a pie. I love the somewhat strong tartness with spice. Use fresh, good fruit for this. It’s a highly seasonal pie. Low quality ingredients mean it will taste bland, under sweet, and generally blah. If you’re really patient, take this out of the oven and let it sit overnight, it will be 300% better after everything has a chance to marinate together.

blackberry ginger peach crumble

adapted from yankee magazine

Filling:

6 medium peaches, diced large

1 lb blueberries

1 1/4 tablespoon lemon juice

Zest of one small lemon

2 tbsp corn starch

3 tablespoons honey

Dash cinnamon

Crust:

1/2 cup almonds, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup roasted buckwheat groats

1/4 cup flour ( if you don’t have buckwheat just use 1/2 cup flour )

1/2 cup oats

1/4 tbsp salt

3-4 tablespoons olive oil or butter

1 inch section grated fresh ginger

1/3 cup honey

3 tablespoons molasses

Preheat oven to 350. Combine filling ingredients and pour into a greased pie pan, approx. 8 or 9 inches. Combine crust ingredients, stirring until a coarse, wet crumble forms. Sprinkle on top of fruit, avoiding overly large chunks and covering most of the entire surface. Bake for approx. 40-45 minutes – crust should be brown and fruit bubbly. Best enjoyed with a scoop of ice cream or, better yet, for breakfast with yogurt!

 

slutty brownies, craigslist poetry, germs

DAMN DC YOU REAL HOT N’ HUMID RIGHT NOW

Guys, my Danish host family is the cutest. My birthday was last week and they made me a virtual birthday cake! I didn’t even have to take in the calories because I just looked at it!

Okay, here is a list of things that I have been doing lately:

1) Hot yoga. Which is incredibly refreshing and energizing in the winter, but takes a whole other level of mental fortitude in the DC summertime. I get sweaty just walking to yoga, then I enter a room that heats up even more, then I work out for an hour, at which point cool air would be nice to evaporate some of my sweat, but then I head right back outside and now I am just sort of hot and humid and my clothes are all “moist” (I hate the word moist!) and there is NO relief. So, the whole “calm your mind” thing is really coming in handy when I have to wait and all I want is a shower…

Here is a summer ratatouille made with FERMENTED CABBAGE & BEETS ON TOP, so clearly my bio-germs will be at 100% and I will live until I am 95. Haha, suckers!

2) Cooking with farmer’s market produce while simultaneously trying to maximize my GERMS. My mom and I both read Michael Pollan’s article on the importance of bacteria and now fermented/probiotic food is slowly creeping into our diets. We’re both obsessed with this KeVita drink that has popped up at Whole Foods and is sort of the stevia-sweetened water version of kefir. It tastes like a refreshing, more tasty kombucha that is super good cold and comes in very trendy flavors. But at 2 for $4, I’m not sure how long this addiction will last. Plus I’m a little skeptical about the whole crazy health benefits thing. Buuuut me and the fam have been eating a lot of fermented cabbage and herring. It’s as if we suddenly turned Danish! This will be good training for next year. 😀

3) Revamping my brand. Or, my personal website. I use Behance to host my portfolio but I’m growing a wee bit tired of the templates. I’m thinkin’ Squarespace might be where I move next, although it is a bit pricier. Hmmmm.

It’s wrong how good these bad boys look.

4) ‘Slutty brownies’ happened*, thanks to a friend who sent them in the mail today. Thanks Rachel! Your brownies fulfilled their promise: they are extremely crazy, everybody wants a piece, and there are more than enough to go around.

5) I’ve been experimenting with found poetry after reading a New York Times piece on writing poetry “fridge magnet style”, using just the words in a particular article. It’s fun to use the more creative side of my brain, a side that often gets stifled or forgotten during one’s 40-hour work week. I started writing Craigslist poetry using only the phrases from actual DC Missed Connections posts. The best one I’ve been able to come up with so far is:

I coughed

Feel I might have missed
a good opportunity,

I coughed,
and your
dog stared at me.

Mushroom.

Blueberry.

6) I have been taking very detailed photos of my produce. And I really love this iPhone macro lens. It’s a steal deal.

*Slutty brownies (noun): an insane mixture of cookie dough/blondies, DoubleStuf oreos, brownie batter with chocolate chips, all layered together and stuck in the oven. Mouthgasm. For the quick and dirty version see here.

Tomato Tart

This is a wonderful, easy, French-inspired summer tart — and it will be better when tomatoes are actually in season, but I couldn’t wait to start making it. It’s adapted from the Spring Hill Community Farm Cookbook, courtesy of a friend’s housemate who offered to sell it to us after I told him I was sort of obsessed with it. It’s full of community recipes, farm wisdom, seasonal stories, a few songs and poems, and general food happiness.

Tomato Tart

1 frozen roughly 8×10-inch puff pastry sheet OR 9-inch pie crust (puff pastry sheet is ideal, in this case I used pie crust and it was still delicious, but more thin crust pizza-like)

2 1/2 tablespoons either honey mustard or dijon mustard

1/2 cup either parmesan, gruyere, or gouda cheese, grated

3 medium tomatoes, sliced thin

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 tsp of all of the following: rosemary, thyme, oregano

pinch of salt, twist of ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Defrost puff pastry or crust according to the box. Unroll onto a pie dish or a normal cookie sheet (size doesn’t really matter here). Spread mustard over the surface. Layer cheese over that, followed by tomatoes (arranged so that the majority of them don’t overlap). Drizzle olive oil on top, followed by the spices. (Optional: sun-dried tomatoes also add a lot of flavor for this tart, either layered alongside fresh tomatoes or cut up and sprinkled on top.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes — it will be done when the tops of the tomatoes look slightly dried and the crust/pastry is browned.

Blackberry “cheesecake” smoothie

I’m not the biggest meat eater and I was a vegetarian for two years in high school, so I’m surprised it has taken me this long to really play around with tofu. I picked up tempeh for the first time this week and have instantly fallen in love– it is so, so good fried up with either ginger and a dash of curry or with smokier spices such as Cajun seasoning. Tempeh’s nutty flavor is delicious and it is an excellent protein source.

I’ve been putting sprouted tofu in my smoothies to great effect. It adds the creaminess I’ve been looking for! You can’t taste it at all but it lends a silken texture that enables one to keep the rest of the smoothie dairy free and relatively healthy. (I.e: you don’t have to rely on sweetened yogurt and can easily blend in lots of fruit and even spinach while maintaining the creaminess.)

The following smoothie is my new favorite: it tastes sort of like blackberry cheesecake in a drink.

blackberry “cheesecake” smoothie

1/2 ripe banana
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/3 cup almond milk
1/4-1/3 cup water (depending on how thick you like your drink)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla stevia
1/2 cup firm silken tofu
1 teaspoon malt powder

Blend in a blender – let blend for a bit longer than usual to ensure it whips up well. Drink!

“Trust me on this” cake {black bean avocado chocolate snacking cake}

It’s January, so perhaps I need to be
 posting more about juices and carrot cumin salads, and while I have been enjoying quite a few carrot cumin salads, I made this cake the 
other day on a whim and it really shocked me (and a few people that
 were around at the time). I pretty much view making healthy things 
as one part challenge, one part useful. Healthier desserts are
 useful because yes, they tend to be better for you, but I’m also
 not into the cult of total holier than thou health
food. And hey look, it’s still sugar, and it still
 should taste good. So, when it comes time to make something sweet
 healthier, especially CAKE, I’m thinking, COOL! This is
 an experiment! A challenge! Chemistry, if you
 will!

chocolate (avocado) butter & friends in all places

 

Post-college life is strange. For many, the immediate downside is that you no longer have a concentrated area in which tons of your friends live. In fact, you no longer have tons of friends, period. Even in Minneapolis, just 40 minutes from my alma mater, many of us alums have wondered, “How does one meet other people out of the blue?”

The upside, however, is the friends that you do keep in touch with are pretty cool. There are no set rules for the types of people you keep in touch with following a significant phase in your life. They may have been your best friend, a casual friend, a friend crush – you find yourselves sending little updates and looking forward to what they have to say in a genuine way. You might send letters, or e-mails, or packages of brownies, and every time you get something or send something it will make you smile. It may be little, but it’s meaningful. You get to connect to the human experience and hear about others. Suddenly, you don’t feel so alone.

—————–

I think my avocados are part of a conspiracy theory: let me back up. This week, they remained hard, green outer shells for a few days, leading me to believe they were nowhere near ripe. One morning? Boom, over-ripe. Just like that. What are you waiiiiting for, they seemed to say. I’m mean, we’ve been ripe for like, foreverrrr. This led me to the pseudo-problem that is “I have too many ripe avocados!”, which, of course, everyone knows isn’t a problem at all.

I didn’t have the ingredients for guac, plus I was in the mood (as I always am) for something sweet. Vegans are fond of avocado frosting or avocado mousse because the texture is perfect for creamy desserts, but I wanted something a little more low-key. Chocolate avocado butter is the perfect in-between, a vegan equivalent of sweet cream, without the sugar rush of frosting. It feels just like soft butter after spending some time in a food processor. Add cocoa powder, a little stevia/maple syrup/honey/molasses, and it turns into a creamy, rich, melt-in-your mouth cocoa spread.

P.S. If you’re really in the mood to spread, the NYTimes has a collection of savory spreads for the holidays.

Cocoa avocado butter

1 1/3 cups mashed avocado

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar as desired (molasses, maple syrup, honey, etc)

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tsp coconut or canola oil

1 tsp salt

(optional: 1 tsp cinnamon)

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor; process until it is the texture of soft, whipped butter.

Spread on a thick slice of warm toast, sprinkle a lil’ sea salt, there ya go. Store in the fridge.

Edit: One week later and my avocado butter is still perfectly kept in the fridge. While I’m sure it’s not meant for a long shelf life, at least know you don’t have to eat it all in one sitting. Or maybe you will. I won’t tell.